G&T Cup in BLED -
a parade of talented bartenders and barista
by the Students of the Vocational College for Catering and Tourism Bled.
The 10th Bartending competition for G&T Cup took place in Bled from Tuesday, 14st April, to Friday, 17rd April, and it was organized by The Vocational College for Catering and Tourism Bled.
The competition was once again attended by a number of young bartenders and barista from six European countries: Slovenia (12), Croatia (1), Czech Republic (2), Slovakia (2), Montenegro (2) and Portugal (2).
Like every year, the competition was held under the supervision of AEHT (European Association of Hotel and Tourism Schools), which gave a special touch to this sort of competition.
The students of the final year of the Vocational College for Catering and Tourism Bled organized the competition under the supervision of Mr. Peter Mihelčič and Mr. Jože Zalar. They took care of the competition part as well as of the preparation and serving food and drinks.
This year competition was a bit different from those in the past, because we organized barman and barista category, and they had to compete using one ingredient from our main sponsor, adding their local product and presenting a story. We also had prepared a written test to check the theoretical knowledge of competitors. The main part of the event was mixing fancy cocktail or coffee creation and presenting story of a cocktail or coffee on the stage.
Barman had to prepare before dinner cocktail, using Vina Montis wines and their country local product. Our sponsor, Vina Montis, provided two of their products Refošk and Malvazija wine.
Barista had to prepare four portions of espresso, four portion of cappuccino and four of their own creation, adding our sponsor product Vina Montis, Refošk liqueur or Amor liqueur.
All competitors had extra time to present their own creation and their country local product. The competitors were monitored and evaluated by the established members of The Slovenian Bartending Association.
Category barman: Janez Trelc (SLO-01; Bled) was awarded the first prize, Kateřina Hejčlová, (CZ-04; Podebrady) was the second and the third place was taken by Ivana Palgutová(SK-01; Prešov). We knew from the beginning that we would see a lot of talented competitors, so therefore we also decided to give awards for the best technical work in barman category that was shown by Kateřina Hejčlová (CZ-04; Podebrady).
Category barista: Aleš Gorenc (SLO-01; Bled) wasawarded the first prize, Simon Repas(SLO-02; Maribor) was the second and the third place was taken by Dorotej Horvat(SLO-09; BIC Ljubljana).
The project manager was a student Miss Lea Gašperšič, head of competition was Mr. Aleš Padovnik, head of animation Mr. Gašper Ambrož Götz, Mr. Blaž Videmšek was responsible for the catering and Mr. Jernej Narat took care of the selection and food preparation.
The main aim of the project was to provide an opportunity for young barmen and barista to show their skills in mixing drinks and/or coffee, with product story. Meeting new people at the same time, and expand their circle of acquaintances and enjoy the beauties of Slovenia, by excursion on 16th April for all participations was also an important part of the event.
The main sponsors of the event were companies Vina Montis – EKO Laura and Barcaffe, but many others also contributed to the competition. We would like to thank everyone who helped at organizing this event.
